OT- 3 women, missing for ten years, found alive in Cleveland home

This story is just so incredible I wanted to share it with everyone. 3 Cleveland area women (Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight) had each been missing for ten years. Yesterday, Amanda Berry decided to make a break for it, and good fortune found her in the form of a neighbor Charles Ramsey. He heard her screaming, called 911, and helped her break out of the locked door of her kidnappers home.

All 3 women were safe, and I believe one of them had a baby while in captivity.

links: http://www.cleveland.com/ (It's pretty much taking over the entire website right now, so the coverage is pretty comprehensive)

The entire thing leaves me dumbfounded. Glad these women are safe. Would love to call this a "happy ending" but I suspect this ordeal will haunt these women forever. I hope they are able to live lives unaffected by this tragedy.

Also, here is the link to and interview with Charles Ramsey, who was the man who called 911 and helped Amanda Berry escape. It is quite an entertaining interview. The man is a hero.

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Amazing stroy indeed. I am astonished as to how someone could keep those girls in hiding for so long.

The interview was priceless, "We ate ribs together, and listened to Salsa Music, you see where I'm coming from!!!" "I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran into a black man's arms!"

I don't technically disagree with you, but perhaps this is not the issue to use, since didn't someone have his wife in a bunch of pieces in a trash bag in his garage in Livonia a year or so ago? Maybe we just move along?

Not far from where I live either. I was travelling back to Ohio from New Hampshire yesterday when the story broke and I couldnt believe what I was seeing. I remember vividly the searches, the candlelight vigils and sadly, Amanda's mom passing away of a broken heart before her daughter was found.

It sure makes you wonder how a person could do something like this to other people for 10 years while keeping all outside appearances "normal". I cant imagine being able to sleep at night much less function in society. And now they say his brothers were involved somehow? It boggles the mind.

I sure hope the 911 dispatcher is out of a job this morning. Listening to the frantic 911 call from Amanda Berry, and the dispatcher is doing everything she can do to get off the phone. Would it really have been that hard to stay on the line with her until police got there? This is the last thing the dispatcher said before getting off: "OK. I told you they were on their way. Talk to them when they get there, OK?"

But reading more of the stories which make references to lots of false reports in the past that would get the families' hopes up, I imagine frantic calls to 911 claiming to be one of these 3 girls might not have been that uncommon of an event. You can't expect a person to instantly realize that this one is the real thing when there have been a bunch of false positives in the past.

The dispatcher comes off as a little bit of a douche, but as long as they (he? she? I can't really tell from the voice) did their job and made sure the police got there as quickly as possible I don't think they should lose their job.

Understand, but did they get police out there asap? When Amanda asked, the dispatcher replied "as soon as we get a car open."

And why wouldn't the dispatcher stay on the line with the frantic woman until the police arrived? If it's a prank, you've kept her there until the police arrived to arrest her for a false report... if it's legit, you've helped calm down a frantic woman in fear of her life. The only thing I can think is they are so short staffed, the dispatchers have been trained to get off immediately unless it is a medical situation... clearly though, the terror in this girls voice should have caused the dispatcher to break those rules.

As a law enforcement dispatcher I can assure you that staffing is ALWAYS an issue. I can't speak for the Cleveland area (I live and work in FL) but my agency receives roughly 2 emergency calls per minute 24/7. All of those call are being answered by 5 call takers assuming nobody calls in sick. Factor in accredidation that mandates all calls are answered, entered, and dispatched within a certain time frame and call takers just aren't afforded the luxury of staying landline.

There is a lot more to it than that, of course, but unless you've actually done the job and experience the conditions that dispatch personel work under you can't really cast judgement on the person doing the job.

Not to sound cold-hearted, but whether the dispatcher stayed on the line or not, the woman wasn't going to be "safe" until the police arrived two minutes later. It's true that she might have helped to calm the woman down, but in the grand scheme of things, no one was really harmed by the dispatcher getting off the phone.

I completely argree. It's easy for people to take 1 call out of probably 100+ that that particular call taker handled that night and critique it. Could the call taker have been more compassionate? Yes. Could they have stayed landline? Maybe depending on call volume. Did the call taker get the necessary information and get law enforcement on scene? Yes and that is what matters in the end.

The 9-1-1 call might be even more entertaining, if that's how we're treating this as a society (not a criticism, thank goodness it turned out as well as it did so that people feel comfortable laughing at some aspect of it). Link to the call partway down on this page:

But doesn't it seem like 90% of these ridiculous crimes occur in either Ohio or Florida? It's always one or the other. I wear maize and blue tinted glasses, but even considering that, it seems like Ohio always has an insane number of 'where the f do these people come from?' crimes

The main gist of the interview being a request for the media to give the families time and distance. She does say that the three girls ("...women," she corrects herself) all have positive attitudes, and are stronger than she could ever be. She give a pretty good impression of strength and wisdom herself.